Book Review: Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation

This report is a book review of Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation by Tim Brown. It discusses the concept of design thinking and how it can be applied to organizations to foster innovation and creativity. The report also explores how the book contributes to the field of Organizational Change and Leadership and how the concepts can be applied in real-world practice.

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Book Review
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Introduction
The report focuses on a review of a book by Tim Brown entitled Change by Design: How
Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation. The report is divided into
three sections. The first section focuses on the review of the book. The second section focuses on
a discussion about how it builds on the content of the Organizational Change and Leadership
program and contributes to the field, and the third section discusses how I will apply what I
learned from the book to real-world practice.
Review of the book
Within the context of Tim Brown’s fascinating book supported the idea of employing
design thinking in all the tiers of life and in running the business (Brown, 2009). According to
the author, incorporation of design thinking approaches establishes a paradigm shift on how
people create products to the manner at which they analyze the correlation existing between
same people and the products. He suggests that design thinking is an attitude that gives impetus
to interdisciplinary measures targeted at handling and solving challenges with a drive to establish
lasting solutions (Brown, 2009). The perspective gets done by conducting an evaluation of
processes and products from the outlook of a humanistic lens.
The approach ignites creativity and innovative ventures which aid in minimizing
financial, operational, and social issues within organizations (Martin, 2009). In supporting the
objective, Tim makes an inference to various testimonies ranging from true innovations to his
service delivery at IDEO. For instance, he makes reference to Victorian Engineer, Brunel who
was an innovator and how the subsequent innovators were design thinkers who shared optimism,
storytelling sessions, collaboration, experiments and showed apt in doing things practically
(Brown, 2009). The aim is to compel readers to adopt design thinking in all undertakings since it
is an exploratory process. He says that innovation through design thinking must focus on human

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experience rather than function with emphasis on building a working environment by making a
continuum of creativity a routine since the non-linear process involves inspiration, the coining of
ideas, and implementation (Brown, 2009). The conclusion is cemented with a reflection
regarding today’s power of design thinking which explores new prospects, institutes new
choices, and presents new solutions to the world.
Tim Brown has a perspective of making his skills easier for every learner and every
reader. He attempted to simplify many concepts and demonstrate how ordinary things can be
turned into innovative projects. That is why the book has several case studies designed to
emphasize different concepts covered. The only weakness about the book is that it covers so
many concepts that are likely to confuse the reader. The book is designed for every person. It is
relevant to almost every person because it gives key insights about innovation. However, the key
targets could be scholars and entrepreneurs.
A discussion about how it builds on the content of the Organizational Change and Leadership
program and contributes to the field
Tim Brown’s line of thought, therefore, is practical in building the concepts of
Organizational Change and Leadership Program in various ways. He offers many intriguing case
studies to support the necessity and the worth of innovation in an environment where team
building and creativity are the pillars. Designing an all-encompassing organizational program
that has its basis in design thinking borrows qualities from the book. The purpose of this is
because the contents cover a broader spectrum with regards to reforming the redundant
administrative structures and cultures while anticipating positive results. The author highlights a
lot of ideas that the organizational management should emphasize while trying to handle unique
and fundamental human needs. Other than concentrating on artificially manipulated desires
which are inclined towards driving design thinking far from the status quo, organizations should

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enhance collaboration. The leadership program should be involving whereby CEOs from the
corporate world appeal to all individuals across all the structures to get together on a typical
course. For instance, the marketing, accounting, and various human resources should work as a
team to solve issues (Tschimmel, 2012). The book recommends that the project personnel should
always diverge to come up with varied choices, then later converge to decide which one to
pursue.
The book encourages people to ask why and not what. The book reveals that for the
design thinker, the question “why?” Is an opportunity to re-formulate the problem, define the
limitations, try to find a more innovative answer? Instead of accepting the given restrictions, one
should ask oneself: is this a problem to be solved? Do we really need faster cars? Or do we want
to improve the efficiency of the transport network? Do we need a TV with additional features or
better-quality entertainment content? A more beautiful hotel lobby or a good night’s sleep? The
desire to ask the question “why?” Will annoy your colleagues in the short term, but in the long
run, it will increase your chances of spending energy on solving the right problems (Brown,
2009). There is nothing worse than finding the right answer to the wrong question (Sibbet, 2013).
This is further true for the project assignment or the development of a new strategy for the
company, as well as for ensuring a meaningful balance between work and life.
The book also challenges people to think in a broader spectrum. For example, Thomas
Edison, who is one of the greatest investors did not close on any narrow scientific specialty; he
was the inventor of a broad profile - and had better business skills. In his laboratory, he collected
the "quick-witted Newtons." He broke the stereotype of the ingenious lone inventor, inventing a
collective way to create innovation. Although Edison's biographers love to write about how his
company worked merrily and smoothly, she reeled in endless circles of trial and error,
highlighting the very “99% sweat” (the famous Edison definition of genius: “Genius is 1%

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inspiration and 99% sweat "). He did not rely on testing ready-made hypotheses, where it was
more important for him to help his staff extract nuggets of new knowledge from each
experiment. Innovation is hard work (Liedtka, Bennett, & King, 2013); Edison made inventing a
profession that incorporated art, craftsmanship, business experience, and understanding of the
market and consumers. Design thinking is a direct follower of this tradition.
Another key concept expressed in the book is that design thinking has changed and that
people should not use the mentality that was used several decades ago. Historically, an
insignificant role was assigned to design in the development process: all the innovative work was
done, and designers started to do business — they come up with a beautiful “packaging” for the
idea (Daft, 2015). This principle, by the way, contributed to the growth of the market in many
industries: new products and technologies were aesthetically pleasing to customers, and
advertising, more elegant and catchier, supported by a competent strategy for working with the
media, attracted more attention to the brand. In the second half of the twentieth century, design
gradually acquired the value of a valuable competitive asset, especially in consumer electronics,
automotive, packaged goods. However, for most industries, the design was still something of
secondary importance - it was at the very end that the line reached it (In Brenner & In
Uebernickel, 2016). However, now companies turn to designers not so much for beautiful
packaging for ready-made ideas, now they need the ideas themselves, more responsive to the
needs and needs of people. The former role of design was tactical because the design itself had
no independent meaning; A new role is strategic, it allows you to create something
fundamentally new (Liedtka & Ogilvie, 2011). Moreover, now in the economy of developed
countries, there is a shift from industrial production to intellectual work; therefore, new open
spaces for innovation are opening up. At present it is aimed not only at specific products, but

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also at new processes, services, and the sphere of entertainment. And it is in these areas that
design thinking can play a crucial role.
The cornerstones of these perspectives include the building of models, storyboarding,
rapid prototypes, and acting out skits which express the exchange of opinions. Another concept
worth borrowing is the idea to augment a social environment fit for innovation whereby
individual ideas are accommodated. The environs should also be spatial with opportunities for
people to conduct experiments, take risks, and discover the full range of their departments.
Brown’s thesis on collaboration reinforces these statements with examples that organizations
should integrate into their leadership programs to realize growth and success (Roberts, 2007).
The case of nurses collaborating at Kaiser Permanente to improve patient care is a wakeup call
for organizational leaders to encourage teamwork. The team, just like the Mattel Coworkers, who
created design products for kids, valued innovation (Brown, 2009). Thus, the primary idea that
ought to be bolstered by organizations is the foundation of inventions if they have to stand out in
the global spectrum with long-term and large-scale impact.
How I will apply what I learned from the book to real-world practice.
From the book, I have learned many concepts which I can apply in real life. I have
learned that designers do not look for extraordinary things. Good design thinkers are watching
the ordinary. The book challenges the readers to stop at least once a day and think about the most
ordinary situation (Brown, 2009). The book warned me to look at the action and the object that I
often ignore as if you were a detective looking around a crime scene. Why are manhole covers
round? Why is my teenage child going to school like this? How can you understand how far
should you get from the previous person in the queue? What is it like to be color blind? (Brown,
2009, P 237) By having a detective-like observation, I am likely to get the most unexpected
information about the unwritten rules governing the life of a person. One of the cases that

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justifies this is the case of Thomas Edison. Edison invented the light bulb, and then created
around it a whole industry – energy (Kesler & Kates, 2011). An incandescent lamp is considered
to be its “proprietary” invention, its business card, but Edison himself understood that these are
all toys: there is no sense without a system for generating and transmitting electricity from the
bulb itself. Thus, he invented the system too. It turns out that Edison could imagine not just a
separate device, but a fully developed market, the whole system of its consumption - this is the
essence of his genius. He managed to predict how people would use his inventions, and he
worked in accordance with this foresight. Sometimes he was mistaken (for example, he initially
thought that the phonograph would be needed mainly by institutions for recording and
reproducing dictations), but he was incredibly attentive to the needs and preferences of people
(Lockwood & Papke, 2018). Edison's approach to business is one of the first examples of what is
now called designer thinking, which suggests that all work of the creator of a new person is
focused on people. Thus, it might be commented that the innovations are implicated in the deep
knowledge of people, understanding of their wants, likes or dislikes in specific products and their
packaging, in advertising, sales and support services. This understanding that might be attained
exclusively as a result of direct observation of real life (Stickdorn, Schneider & Andrews, 2011).
Lastly, the book challenges me that the work of the designer is not a thoughtful series of
consecutive steps, but rather a system of creative zones. These zones, interconnected activities,
like details of a mosaic, form a single space of innovation. For those who come into contact with
this method for the first time, design thinking may seem chaotic (Schmiedgen, Rhinow &
Köppen, 2016). However, along the way, participants are beginning to understand that this is a
meaningful process, leading to concrete results, although it differs from linear, business-specific
processes. Total design projects must go through three zones. The first one is “inspiration”: these
are circumstances (a problem or an opportunity, or both) that lead to the search for a solution

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(Brown 2009). The second is the “birth of an idea,” the process of creating, developing and
testing ideas. The final zone refers to the “implementation”, which deals with the implementation
of the ideas. The knowledge of the afore-mentioned factors would help me in my impatience.
Tim Brown revealed that implementation entails a series of steps. This reveals that once the idea
has been developed, it is not necessary that it will work automatically. I believe that many
people, just like me, might lose hope once the idea failed. However, if they follow a planned
path, they will not be disappointed.

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References
Daft, R. L. (2015). Organization theory and design. Cengage learning.
Brown, T. (2009). Change by Design: How design thinking transforms organizations and
inspires innovation. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
In Brenner, W., & In Uebernickel, F. (2016). Design Thinking for Innovation: Research and
Practice. Cham : Springer International Publishing
Kesler, G., & Kates, A. (2011). Leading Organization Design: How to make organization design
decisions to drive the results you want. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Liedtka, J., & Ogilvie, T. (2011). Designing for Growth: A design thinking tool kit for managers.
New York: Columbia University Press.
Liedtka, J., Bennett, K., & King, A. (2013). Solving Problems with Design Thinking. New York:
Columbia University Press.
Lockwood, T., & Papke, E. (2018). Innovation by Design: How any organization can leverage
design thinking to produce change, drive new ideas, and deliver meaningful solutions.
Wayne, NJ : Career Press, Inc.
Martin, R. (2009). Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage.
Boston: Perseus Book LLC (Ingram.
Roberts, J. (2007). The modern firm: Organizational design for performance and growth.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Schmiedgen, J., Rhinow, H., & Köppen, E. (2016). Parts without a whole?: the current state of
design thinking practice in organizations (Vol. 97). Universitätsverlag Potsdam.
Sibbet, D. (2013). Visual leaders: New tools for visioning, management, & organization change.
Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Stickdorn, M., Schneider, J., & Andrews, K. (2011). This is Service Design Thinking: Basics,
tools, cases. Amsterdam, The Netherlands : BIS Publishers, Amsterdam
Tschimmel, K. (2012). Design Thinking, an effective Toolkit for Innovation. In ISPIM
Conference Proceedings (p. 1). The International Society for Professional Innovation
Management (ISPIM).